3. Peacebuilding News

The General Assembly approved on August 10 the appointment of Michelle Bachelet as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights effective September 2018. Bachelet is a prominent women’s rights advocate who served as the first woman president in Chile and is expected to assert her leadership in advancing human rights in the world with rising racial tension and authoritarian rule.

At a press conference held at UN Headquarters on July 20, US Secretary of State Pompeo stated Presidents Trump and Putin discussed how to return Syrian refugees who had fled the war-torn country during their behind closed doors meeting in Helsinki on July 16, 2018.

In his meeting in Rome with senior officials of UN Associations of China, Japan and South Korea on July 14, Coate expressed his appreciation of active participation of scholars and experts from East Asia in the annual meetings of ACUNS and his desire to expand and deepen the relationship between ACUNS and the academic associations of East Asia.

According to a report filed by Susan Manuel of PASSBLUE, China`s influence on the process of constructing the new structure of UN peace and security architecture in growing. Please click here her report.

As IOM’s current Director General, William Lacy Swing, steps down after completing the second of two five-year terms, the Special Council`s decisive rejection of the American candidate, Ken Isaacs, in the first round of voting, signaled a growing number of nations are no longer prepared to indefinitely defer to the power of the United States when human rights and values are assaulted by the current US Administration.

Ambassador Nikki Haley announced that the United States is withdrawing from the U.N. Human Rights Council, calling it “an organization that is not worthy of its name.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, appeared alongside Haley at the State Department.

UN report on improving the security of all peacekeepers is viewed as pushing overwhelming and aggressive operations making the UN party to conflict and potentially undermining the security of both UN personnel and the civilians they are meant to protect. Here is her article.

António Guterres also calls for strong partnerships beyond the United Nations and a broad and inclusive approach with international financial institutions including the World Bank, and other multilateral donors, the business community, civil society and local actors.

・Yamamoto, Raymond. (2016). The Securitization of Japan’s ODA: New Strategies in Changing Regional and Domestic Contexts. In Asplund, A. and Söderberg, M. eds. Japanese Development Cooperation: The Making of an Aid Architecture Pivoting to Asia. 1st ed. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 72-89.